Trump ‘thinks wearing mask would send wrong message before election and believes US death toll is exaggerated’
PRESIDENT Donald Trump reportedly thinks that wearing a mask would send the wrong message before the election – and believes the US coronavirus death toll is exaggerated.
The president allegedly made the comments just two days after he toured a N95 production facility without wearing a mask.
Trump has told advisers that he believes wearing a mask would “send the wrong message,” one administration and two campaign officials told the Associated Press.
The president allegedly said that wearing a mask would make it seem like he is preoccupied with health instead of focused on reopening the nation’s economy — which his aides believe is the key to his reelection chances in November.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that it is due to the president’s appearance that he has been seen not wearing the PPE so often.
“The President, it’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him,” Pelosi said during an interview with MSNBC.
“I don’t know why he would be vain, but anyways, it’s a vanity thing.
“You would think as the President of the United States you would have the confidence to honor the guidance that you are giving others in the country.”
The president’s reelection campaign has ordered red Trump-branded masks for supporters and is considering giving them away at events or in return for donations.
The mask comments came as Trump reportedly complained to advisers about how the coronavirus deaths are being calculated, and suggested the real death toll is actually lower.
A senior administration official said that he expects the president to begin publicly questioning the coronavirus death toll, according to an Axios report.
“Skepticism isn’t the right way to frame it,” a White House official told the outlet.
“The numbers have been revised up to include presumptive cases — meaning deaths that are believed to be related to COVID but not known for sure.
“So he’s expressed the need to properly convey that to American people so they’re not startled by why numbers ticked up.”
Another official told Axios that the president’s concerns were shared by a number of his senior staff and have been the topic of discussion for several weeks.
“With something like this virus, where you’ve got this weird coagulation in the lungs … we need more autopsies,” the official said.
“America’s out of practice of how to deal with something like this and to report it accurately. …
“We don’t have uniform reporting standards in the United States or internationally. And we’re not getting good data.”
The outlet reported that some members of Trump’s team believe the government created a distorting financial incentive for hospitals to identify coronavirus cases.
A second senior official also told Axios that they shared this concern.
This could be due to Medicare giving hospitals a 20 percent bonus for their treatment of coronavirus patients, the outlet reported.
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The coronavirus has devastated the United States, having killed at least 72,812 Americans.
The country currently has a total of 1,223,419 confirmed cases.
However, 205,268 have recovered from the disease.